MONTHLY PRAYER SCHEDULE:

March 14, 2012- JCC Conversations "Combating Islamophobia"

 

   We can defeat Our common enemies:
Joint Statement by Imam Mohammad Shamsi Ali, spiritual leader of the Jamaica Muslim Center and Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding:
                       
American Jews and Muslims can defeat a common enemy by working together. That common enemy is prejudice - and if one needed statistical evidence for it, stark proof was revealed this week. A Gallup poll found that 43 percent of Americans admit to at least "a little" prejudice against Muslims, and that such self-reported feelings are strongly linked to the respondent's views on Jews. Remarkably, those who say they feel "a great deal" of prejudice toward Jews are about 32 times more likely to report feeling a "great deal" of prejudice toward Muslims, according to the polling company.
Such numbers should serve as a call to action for both the Jewish and Muslim communities: We must work together as individuals on the grass-roots level to promote tolerance and reduce anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Barriers start to crumble when rabbis, imams and the members of their houses of worship take the time to learn about each other -- and then show the rest of the country that they share a common value system.
Of course, Jews and Muslims don't agree on everything, but there are many more areas of agreement. Gallup also noted this week that compared with other religious groups in the United States, Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans are most similar in terms of political ideology, education and political party identification, according to previous research. And a poll of Israelis earlier this month found a plurality of voters in Israel would oppose a ban on the construction of minarets on mosques built in Israel. The poll was taken after Swiss voters approved a resolution banning the construction of minarets late last year.
Jews and Muslims can use such common interests to forge and strengthen relationships and build an agenda that works for the betterment of a society as a whole. Sharing common roots as children of Abraham, Jews and Muslims can talk about their similarities in theology, as well as the times during history when their two peoples co-existed successfully. And they can forge bonds by talking about their similar interests in such issues as saving the environment, fighting poverty and reforming the U.S. immigration system.
For example, last November, Jews and Muslims in Buffalo turned those views into action. Doctors and dentists worked together to provide joint health screenings for people without health insurance in their community, and the success of that program has encouraged other mosques and synagogues to put similar programs together. Such a project not only builds relationships among Jews and Muslims, but also shows those who may still harbor some bias toward the two faiths that our similarities override our differences.
That project arose out of the second annual Weekend of Twinning of Mosques and Synagogues, which brought together more than 100 synagogues and 100 mosques who held similar programs to the one in Buffalo in communities across the United States, Canada and Europe.

Coming just days after the horror of extremist violence at Fort Hood, the Weekend of Twinning was heartening evidence that most Muslims are moderates, and that majorities in both the Muslim and Jewish communities seek better relations. As a member of the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md. told the Washington Jewish Week newspaper, the Fort Hood tragedy actually made it easier to attract his fellow mosquegoers, because "it made people more willing to come out and say, 'We need to meet each other.'"
But we can't let such traumatic events guide our actions. Jews and Muslims must be consistently engaged in such projects - whether it is programs that educate each other on their respective religious practices or partnering to provide help for the most disadvantaged among us.
That's the best way to form the trust and friendships necessary to help Jews and Muslims fight anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. As Gallup has shown, hatred of Jews and Muslims is linked, and therefore Jews and Muslims must be linked in our responsibility to fight it.
Imam Mohammad Shamsi Ali is the spiritual leader of Jamaica Muslim Center, Queens. Rabbi Marc Schneier is the founding rabbi of The New York Synagogue and president of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

Subject: The attack on the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica, Queens
By Imam Mohammad Shamsi Ali
and Rabbi Marc Schneier

The attack on the Imam Al-Khoei Islamic Center in Jamaica, Queens on the first dayof 2012 highlights the continuing peril confronting Muslim New Yorkers amidstthe ongoing wave of incitement and religious bigotry being directed againstIslam and Muslims in cities across the U.S. As horrific as was the attack onthe Al-Khoie Center, which houses a school in addition to its religioussanctuary, the human cost might have been far worse. The Al Khoie Center washolding a commemoration of its anniversary on the evening it was attacked and80 people were inside the building when it was hit by what are believed to havebeen firebombs. Thankfully, none of those inside the building were injured, butthe fact that the perpetrators savagely attacked a building filled withworshipers is a sign of how dangerous the current sinister wave ofIslamophobia has become to very life and limb of peaceful American Muslims. 

The twoof us unequivocally condemn this heinous hate crime and stand in fullsolidarity with the members of the Al-Khoei Center. Any attempt to damage ordesecrate any house of worship is an attempt to harm all houses of worship; andpeople of conscience of all faiths must speak out together against such attacksand in support of those who have been victimized. 

Just aswe came together three years ago to denounce the planned attacks on twosynagogues in Riverdale, we are equally as emphatic today in speaking out againstthe wanton attack on the Al-Khoie Islamic Center. In the face of this evil act,we vow to redouble our efforts as leaders of the Muslim and Jewish communitiesto combat purveyors of religious bigotry who would threaten the constitutionaland God-given right of members of any or all religious communities in New YorkCity to peacefully practice their faiths free of the threat of violence. 

Inorder to protect that sacred right of freedom of worship, we urge the New YorkCity Police Department to increase patrols in front of mosques, synagogues andother houses of worship around New York City where there is a perceived dangerof hate crimes. We encourage Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD to demonstrate thatthey are not only committed to fighting terrorism—as they must be—but will alsodo everything possible to protect the rights of law-abiding Muslims to practicetheir faith in peace and security. By stepping up patrols in front of houses ofworship, the NYPD can demonstrate that it accords the highest possible priorityto combating hate crimes; whether directed against Muslims, Jews, Christians,Hindus, Sikhs or members of any other religious group.
We lookforward to the swift apprehension and punishment of the perpetrators of theattack on the Al-Khoie Islamic Center, and to the NYPD putting measures intoplace that will help to prevent these types of crimes from being carried outagainst any of our houses of worship in the future.


 

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